Prez #3 Poster (1973) by Jerry Grandenetti

Description

The Prez of the title was Prez Ricard, first teenage president of the United States, fortuitously named by his mother (and future running mate) because she foresaw that he would one day occupy the White House. Prez is assisted in his Oval Office endeavors by his FBI Director Eagle Free, an egregious Native American caricature who lives in a wigwam and talks to animals. The surreal, short-lived series was heavy on humor and early-1970s counterculture atmospherics (“Right on, my Prez!” is one of Eagle Free’s customary interjections). In the penultimate third issue, Prez must fend off an insurrection led by General Gregor Washington, the deranged great-great-grandnephew of America’s first commander-in-chief, who objects to a recently passed gun-control law. The next issue had the youthful chief executive battling a paraplegic White House vampire. Interior and cover art for Prez was provided by Jerry Grandenetti, a onetime assistant under Will Eisner and a mainstay of DC’s war, Western and Horror lines. While his own title never caught fire with readers, Prez went on to make a memorable guest appearance in a 1993 issue of The Sandman. Prez fends off an insurrections led by General Gregor Washington, the deranged great-great-grandnephew of America’s first commander-in-chief, who objects to a recently passed gun-control law. Prez: First Teen President was a four-issue comic series by writer Joe Simon (the creator of Captain America) and artist Jerry Grandenetti, released by DC Comics in 1973 and 1974. It followed the adventures of Prez Ricard, the first teenage President of the United States of America, whose election had been made possible by a Constitutional amendment lowering the age of eligibility to accommodate the then-influential youth culture of the baby boom (a premise similar to that in the cult film Wild in the Streets). Martha Rickard, of Steadfast, Middle America, named her son Prez because she thought he should someday be President. Having made the clocks of Steadfast, whose towers were so out of sync that the town heard a constant chiming, run on time, he was hired as a front for shady businessman Boss Smiley to run for United States Senator after the eligibility age was lowered. An idealist, he rebelled against Smiley. With 45% of voters under 30, the youthful Congress passed an amendment lowering the eligibility age for the presidency and Senator Ricard was voted President of the United States. He appointed his mother, Martha, Vice President and made his sister his secretary. Prez’s most significant collaborator was Eagle Free, a young Native American who had a deep understanding of animals. He lived in a cave well-stocked with books about them, but got most of his knowledge first-hand. Prez appointted him director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Eagle Free wore a headband with a feather, braids, and no shirt, and was often accompanied by a menagerie of native and non-native animals. Eagle Free trained Prez in multiple fighting techniques. This was never shown, but it was referred to when he utilized them. Prez fought legless vampires, a right-wing militia led by the great-great-great-great-great-grandnephew of George Washington, “Boss Smiley” (a political boss with a smiley face), and evil chess players. He was attacked for his stance on gun control, and survived an assassination attempt during that controversy. After four issues, the series was abruptly cancelled. Several years later, Issue #5 was included in Cancelled Comic Cavalcade #2, though Prez itself predated the DC Implosion. In 1993, Neil Gaiman featured the character in issue #54 of his Sandman series, in a story called “The Golden Boy”. In it, Prez is a young man who adores not simply his country but everything that it stands for. Much of the story includes revised versions of real-life events from years that followed, and the assassination attempt on Prez’s life takes the life of his fiancée, which Prez forgives when he learns that the assassin is mentally unbalanced. Eventually, he is killed, and Boss Smiley confronts him with a day of reckoning. At this point, Sandman’s protagonist, Dream, intervenes and offers him passage to alternate Americas. Charles J. “Jerry” Grandenetti (April 15, 1926, Bronxville, New York – February 19, 2010, Bellport, New York) was an American comic book artist and advertising art director, best known for his work with writer-artist Will Eisner on the celebrated comics feature “The Spirit”, and for his decade-and-a-half run on many DC Comics war series. He also co-created the DC comic book Prez with Joe Simon. Pop artist Roy Lichtenstein’s 1962 drawing Jet Pilot is based on a Grandenetti comic-book panel on the cover of DC’s All-American Men of War #89 (Feb. 1962), and Lichtenstein’s 1964 triptych “As I Opened Fire” is based on panels by Grandenetti in “Wingmate of Doom” in issue #90 (April 1962).